The influence of the consumption of ethyl alcohol on motor vehicle driver behavior is well established [1,2]. Innumerable other psychoactive drugs are now used widely by the populations of developed countries. That these drugs are also used by motor vehicle drivers on occasion has been documented [3] and discussed [4]. The effects of these drugs alone, in combination, or with ethyl alcohol on driver behavior are not fully understood. Approaches that could clarify such effects include prospective experimentation with human volunteers in simulated driving situations, prospective experimental studies with human volunteers in actual driving situations, retrospective toxicological analyses of fatal automobile accident victims in mass statistical studies, reconstruction of fatal automobile accidents, and comparative study of individuals with specific, observed driving behavior in real-life situations who were subsequently determined to be with and without drugs.

Author Information:

Lundberg, GD Professor and chairman, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis,

White, JM Criminalist, Santa Ana, Calif

Hoffman, KI Assistant professor of medical education, University of Southern California School of Medicine, Los Angeles,

Stock #: JFS10810J

ISSN: 0022-1198

DOI: 10.1520/JFS10810J

ASTM International

is a member of CrossRef.
Author Title Drugs (Other than or in Addition to Ethyl Alcohol) and Driving Behavior: A Collaborative Study of the California Association of ToxicologistsSymposium , 0000-00-00Committee E30